There are numerous multifunction devices incorporating manicure instruments, such as nail files, cuticle pushers, and finger nail cleaners. However, these devices are relatively small and due to the infrequency with which they are used are prone to being misplaced or lost.
Since early on in the development of modern writing instruments, a cap of some kind has been included with the instrument.
The presence of the cap on pens has spurred attempts to improve on manicure instruments and writing instrument caps by combining their functional aspects into a single device. For example, some have incorporated a blade or manicure attachment that is housed within the cap and may be projected therefrom as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,725,064 to Easton. However, the number of parts and their relationship makes assembly complex and expensive. In similar fashion, U.S. Pat. No. 2,075,932 to Ehrmann discloses a cap which has a slidably mounted retaining clip which when slid up reveals an abrader. While relatively simple in its construction, U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,156 to Herald discloses a pen cap with a slidably mounted nail file held in place on the pen clip by a thin peripheral retainer. However, the exposed abrader is easily fouled by clothing fibers and the like when the pen contacts wooly clothing or the like. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,110,999 to Miga discloses a manicure attachment for a writing instrument in which the cap is used as a sheath to cover the fixed mounted attachment, leaving the writing tip unprotected, and rendering the arrangement less than ideal for a pencil and unacceptable for use with a pen.
All of the above prior art fails to adequately solve the problem of providing a convenient manicuring instrument incorporated into an attachment to a writing instrument. Thus, each of the prior art systems is inadequate to effectively solve the subject problem because its design inherently contains one or more of the following disadvantages, namely, 1) expensive to produce, 2) complicated design, 3) non-adaptability to various writing instruments, and 4) not providing a clip portion for attachment of the writing instrument to an item such as a shirt sleeve.